Chad Brown
posted five images with the comment:
Built in 1882 and was the first commercial building in Chicago with electric lighting was the original Chicago Board of Trade building. When it was constructed it had a 320 ft. tall clock tower and housed a 4,500 lb. bell. Topping off the tower was a ship shaped weather vane. For a time, it was the tallest building in the city. It was also a very popular tourist attraction during the Columbian Exposition. When the federal reserve built its bank across the street, the CBOT was declared "unsound". The construction of the reserve building caused problems with the CBOT's flimsy foundation. The original Board of Trade was demolished in 1929 and construction of the current building began... [I found much of this description in ChicagoArchitecture]
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MWRD posted
The old Chicago Board of Trade building is seen in this photo from October 22, 1898, with decorations for the Peace Jubilee celebrating the end of the Spanish American War. The photographer's journal describes the banner hanging on the building as, "Jubilee Decoration on Board of Trade. 'Commerce Follows the Flag.'" |
My experience is that it is hard to get photos of tall buildings downtown because they are surrounded by tall buildings and you can't get back far enough. This 3D image is actually a better view than I could take with a camera.
"The Chicago Board of Trade Building is currently the 37th tallest building in Chicago [accessed Sep 2023]. It stands 184 meters, 605 feet, and has 44 floors. The building has a faceless statue of Ceres (goddess of agriculture) as a reference to the exchange's heritage as a commodity market." [
kiddle]
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Street View
I learned about these two statues from the 1882 building in ChicagoDetours. So I used Street View to verify the location of the statues. Note the face of the statue on the right. Obviously Google has developed software to look for faces and blur them out to protect privacy because no human would protect the privacy of a statue. |
I was researching the statue on the CBOT because I was looking for the name of the goddess depicted by the statue on top of the 1930 art deco skyscraper that replaced the 1882 building. It is the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres. The building is 600 feet tall, and it was the tallest in Chicago for decades. It has no face because the sculptor figured no one would see the details anyhow from over 600 feet away. "However, there was another reason why ignoring details was probably wise – within just a few weeks of being placed, the statue was completely blackened by soot from smokestacks, and didn’t get a bath for 12 years!" [
MysteriousChicago]
Actually, the building was 604' or 605' tall, depending on source. Those few feet are important because it allowed the CBOT to retain the title of Chicago's tallest when the 601' tall
Prudential Building was built. But it remained the tallest because the statue counts as part of its height whereas the antennae on the Prudential does not count.
Many railfan photos of trains entering and leaving the
La Salle Street Station have the top of this building in their background. This 1951 example shows that it still dominated the skyline. (And it shows that buildings had their own water tower for fire protection.)
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New York Central System Historical Society posted
An array of trains at LaSalle Street Station, Chicago, Illinois, September 1951. Left to right: NYC 675, a Rock Island suburban train, NYC 4033 and 4024 and an unidentified class K11 Pacific. (NYCSHS Collectio) |
Raymond Kunst
added seven photos with the comment: "Chicago Board of Trade at 141 W. Jackson, it was razed in the late 1920's, making room for the current building.
*Photos curiosity of Chicagology.
https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage014/"
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